


Nearly a bark

by cleodido



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Male Character, Canon Compliant, F/M, Multi, Older Man/Younger Woman, Past Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Work In Progress, an ode to bisexuality, ill update rating and warnings as i go, lol, this is improvised
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26966383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleodido/pseuds/cleodido
Summary: Tonks trips over the umbrella stand, lets out a shout, prepares for impact, then lands.
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I havent written anything in YEARS, and am now starting again. I hope I'll keep with this. 
> 
> This will be romance between Tonks and Lupin! It's more or less canon compliant. Will it be accurate in detail? NO. Or maybe, but only ever accidentally so. Warnings and ratings will be added as I go, as I'm not sure where I'm going yet. I hope you enjoy! drop your suggestions in the comments, and I just might follow through xx

Tonks trips over the umbrella stand, lets out a shout, prepares for impact, then gets caught by the chair behind it.

Two, then five, then ten seconds pass.

The chair has its armrests around her, and is not letting go. Tonks looks around, bewildered. Up until now, this chair has by no means moved to accommodate her. In fact, she's banged into the edge of it exactly the amount of times she has stumbled over that damned umbrella stand. Her knees are thankful for the change of pace, but the chair seems to be holding on to some resentment. Tonks is comfortably, but _firmly_ bogged down.

She assesses the situation. Her wand is in the back pocket of her jeans, just where she can't reach it, pressed down by an armrest in a position that is ideal for it to blast off a buttock (of course it is, _damn you, Mad-Eye_ ). Kicking the chair won't do her much good, and yelling for help will only serve to awaken Walburga. She can morph herself smaller, but doing that on an empty stomach is a _bitch_ -

"Well!"

It's nearly a bark, and Tonks sucks in air. Almost immediately, the chair releases her with fervour, in fact, it just about tosses her into the air. She has half a mind to hex it into next year, but refrains. She knows that bark.

Tonks has seen Sirius Black more in the past week than she has in the twenty-two years before it. Still, the memories she has of him are more vivid than any impression he leaves her with now. The look in his eyes reminds her of limp spaghetti and it's unsettling; whether a favourite cousin or a wanted war criminal, Sirius has always lived in her head as someone larger than life. With the man he is now, she has a hard time finding her footing.

When she gets up off the floor, however, he grins. His eyes crinkle.

"Handy piece of wandwork, that. You keep your kneecaps, I keep my peace of mind." He gestures to Walburga Black's portrait, still neatly hidden behind its curtains.

"Did you do that? Charm the chair?"

"Oh- no. I didn't." He looks at her with spaghetti-like eyes and smiles wistfully. "I think Remus might've."

"Oh."

"Dinner's ready, if you'd like to join." Sirius steps aside to let her pass to the kitchen. "Snape's here, by Dumbledore's orders. But let's not have that ruin our fun."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters are hella short, but fast incoming. Also, there's swearing in this!

"And that is EXACTLY why Harry should take part in this!"

"Potter's academic capacities barely reach a  _ mediocre  _ level, he's hardly capable of-"

"HOW DARE YOU, FUCKING-"

"Spare me the dramatics, Black, how did you think there'd be  _ any _ -"

Tonks tries to focus on her food. Her initial glee at the prospect of seeing Snape eat has vanished, and frankly, so has her appetite. She is twenty-two years old and has only freshly graduated from Auror training, so the idea of turning down free meals is bordering on scandalous, but truth be told: every dinner turns out to be the same soup, just reheated. 

The same goes for the conversation. 

Tonks isn't so much bored as she is bloody  _ exhausted _ . On top of her Auror duties, she spends at least three nights a week on Order patrol. You-Know-Who's return has caused suspicion far beyond paranoia, and after the year Mad-Eye's had, she can't let her guard down to go to the loo. Sleep she does in twenty minute naps, wand in hand. 

And every Tuesday night she spends at Grimmauld Place, witnessing Hogwarts rivalries being rehashed like there isn't a war looming. Or perhaps like there is. 

Either way, Snape and Sirius are about to engage in something between a duel and a pub brawl, and Dumbledore has the audacity to twinkle his eyes at her like he's  _ Merlin himself _ . McGonagall has long since left the building, making excuses about Hogwarts duties, and Tonks knows a woman with good sense when she sees one, but apparently not well enough to follow that example. 

Bile rises in her throat. She bites her lip, digs her nails into her palm, flexes all her toes.

If she cries, she's fucking  _ done  _ for _. Do. Not. Cry.  _

Suddenly, her bowl tips over. Lukewarm onion soup flows steadily into her lap. 

Tonks sees an opportunity, and she grabs it with both hands.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am Tonks, Tonks is me. Really excited about making this complicated!!
> 
> Don't mind me, screaming into the void

"Are you all right?" Remus Lupin softly inquires at four in the morning. It's quite right of him to ask, after jinxing Tonks' soup onto her lap. 

"Yeaaaah." she yawns. 

He looks at her once, twice, then turns around. 

They're in the kitchen. She's writing her patrol report. There is absolutely nothing to say about Little Whinging on a Tuesday night, but every minute has to be accounted for. At this point, she's drawing squiggles. 

He sets the kettle on the table and sits down across from her. Light hits his face and Tonks is first distracted, then mesmerised. 

_ Ooooh.  _ That's quite new, that. 

He's looking down at a piece of parchment, brow furrowed, mouth open. There's a pink scar on his forehead, running through his left eyebrow. He has bags under his eyes, wrinkles around his mouth, a crook in his long, long nose. The tip of his tongue he holds to his lower lip. He has an underbite, and another scar from his lip down to his chin. It's deeper but older, leaving a fold in his mouth that makes him all lopsided. 

Tonks isn't tired anymore. There's blood in her body, she can almost feel it rushing through her. Her head is inflating like a balloon with it. Her ears are growing into wings with it. Soon she'll float away with her balloon head and her winged ears, glowing faintly. 

He seems frozen for a long, long moment, then BANG!

Eyes hit face.

Tonks bites her lip and grins  _ wide _ .

And- 

Remus looks her dead in the eyes, face unmoving. A moment later he furrows his brow again and looks down. He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. 

"You look like Sirius when you do that."


	4. Chapter 4

When the Weasleys arrive, Tonks can breathe. 

Molly and Sirius have a silent feud going on, but it's just simmering for now. Severus Snape has fled the scene altogether, only coming in for meetings. And with the children, there's  _ fun.  _

Tonks is so good at fun.

Fred and George are how Charlie would have turned out, had he swallowed his dragons instead of fussed over them. Ginny is like Bill, but she's a girl, so that's mad. Ron seems lost, mostly. Hermione is hard to get to know, because all her eyes ever tell Tonks is a tale of guilt.

The twins flirt with her because they're seventeen, have never seen a witch outside Hogwarts and because Molly despises it. Tonks welcomes it merrily, even goes blonde for a while. 

Sirius barks a hollow but genuine laugh when he sees it and tells her she looks like Narcissa. There's no spaghetti in his eyes when he says it, just the Black edge Tonks thought he'd lost. She isn't comforted by its return like she expected she would be. Of course, things change when you're no longer six years old. 

Remus Lupin is in the back of her mind at all times. At night, she brings him to the front of it. 

He's at Grimmauld like a comfortably lived-in settee would be. Tonks suspects he's unhappy about it. She doesn't think Sirius' newly retrieved spirit does him much good, by the looks of him. 

For all the attention she pays to its residents, Grimmauld Place itself she isn't all that aware of. She trips over an umbrella stand and falls into the arms of a chair, wand firmly nestled in her back pocket. 

It's him that gets her out, because of course it bloody is. 

"Sorry about that. Sirius told me it wouldn't let you go. I think it's got a mind of its own."

"It's this bloody house. Unfit for inanimate objects."

He smiles at that, then holds out a hand. Tonks takes it, tries to stand up and stumbles forward before landing on her feet. 

Which is when she catches Remus Lupin looking at her tits. 

Talk about a FUCKING TRIUMPH. 

He looks up, she looks down, he looks down, they both look up. She bites her lip and grins. Remus pinches the bridge of his nose. He looks apologetic, pathetic; long nose and sorry eyes, but he says nothing. Tonks lets her eyes drop to his shoulders and his chest,  _ and then Remus Lupin says _ : "All right, that's quite enough."

She cackles with mirth and her hair goes bubblegum pink.

Remus opens his mouth to say something, changes his mind, grimaces and smiles apologetically. It does not reach his eyes. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what I'm doing is just going by what I remember form the books, instead of properly researching. This might not add up at all. It will happen again. hugs & kisses!!

Harry Potter gets expelled for defending himself against Dementors. Tonks gets put on something called an  _ Advance Guard _ and goes to get him. 

Molly Weasley has told Tonks all about Harry's thin frame and the harrowing absence of motherly love in his life, a day before in Grimmauld's kitchen. Sirius' mouth had pulled into a Snape-like sneer, out of regret or annoyance, Tonks could not tell. She gathered Potter must be at least nearly dead, with rotting teeth due to a lack of vitamins. 

Though indeed lonely and malnourished, Harry Potter is full of life. What he needs most, first and foremost, is his mates to have a laugh with, and a ride on that wicked broom of his. 

When both are taken care of accordingly, Tonks wonders what possible reason could be good enough for Dumbledore to pull shit like this, to keep him there,  _ a fifteen year old boy-  _

She sits in the kitchen, late at night. She should go back to her own flat, but the creepy cleaner is coming by in the morning, she doesn't want to go yet, she could just… sleep here… 

"Tonks!"

Sure enough, it's Remus. And it's light out. Huh. 

They look at each other. She grins.

"Wotcher, Lupin." 

"Have you been here all night?"

"I think so."

There's a short silence. Remus has a dusty cloak on that many moths seemed to have found a home in, his hair matted and gray, his eyes glassy, and Tonks' heart fucking  _ aches. _

"Where are you going?"

"I'll be out for a few days."

He says it distantly, politely, and of course Tonks knows. He knows that she knows, she wants to say something, she goes to say something- and Remus turns on his heel and leaves. 

A door slams. Tonks sighs, then turns her hair the shade of rain.  



End file.
